One of the biggest monuments to the Bolshevik Revolution leader Vladimir Lenin has been toppled in Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkov by “activists” who had gathered in their hundreds to watch it being sawn down waiting to get pieces as souvenirs.

As the symbol of communist past was being demolished in the
center of Kharkov by the country's ultra-nationalists, the event
was broadcast via live internet stream by a number of channels.

Around three thousand activists answered the call “Kharkov – it's
Ukraine” and gathered on Sunday evening to demonstrate their
support of the authorities in Kiev. After the main procession, a
group of activists with blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and
nationalist red-black banners gathered at the center of the
square in front of a monument to the icon of the communist
movement, Vladimir Lenin.

A few of the men managed to climb the tall statue to write out
“Glory to Ukraine” as well as a Nazi Wolfsangel symbol, which
Ukrainian ultra-national "patriots" claim to actually be the
crossed letters N and I, meaning "national idea."

Another group of men with the flag of the volunteer battalion
Azov and the Ukrainian flag climbed the ladder to the monument
and using a grinder began sawing off his leg.

As the monument of Lenin came down, many people cheered, as the
former communist leader is seen by many in Ukraine as an
undesired link with Moscow. Others voiced anger over the decision
to destroy a monument that many see as insult to the country’s
past, but that was mostly online, hesitating to intervene after
police on Saturday detained several dozen participants of the
anti-war march labelled by authorities as separatist.

However, most people in the excited crowd rushed to the ruins as
the statue fell to collect a small piece of the once powerful
symbol to take back home with them.

The police claimed a criminal case was filed based on an article
which seeks punishment for “the destruction of or damage to
cultural heritage sites and personal property.” The police
officers also had a meeting with the activists “about the
impermissibility of provocations and violations of the law.”

However, Ukraine's Interior Minister Arsen Avakov sees nothing
wrong or criminal in this act of vandalism and said the criminal
case was closed since the governor swiftly issued an order to
demolish that monument.

“Lenin? Let him fall. As long as the people did not
suffer,” Avakov wrote on his Facebook page. “If only
this bloody communist idol, leaving, did not add to his victims
count.”

Law enforcements were given orders “to protect the people,
not the idol,” Avakov added.

“I have instructed the relevant authorities to take measures
to get rid of the statue of Lenin from the register of monuments
of history and culture, as well as to take measures to dismantle
the monument,” the head of city administration Igor Baluta
said, according to Ukrinform.

Currently the area around the monument is cordoned off by police
with “guns and tear gas,”adviser to the Interior Minister
Anton Geraschenkosaid, as quoted by rrnews.ru. The
authorities warn not to use the“fragile political
situation”for
political gains.

Instead of Lenin, Gerashchenko says, authorities should erect a
monument to all the heroes who fought and died for the
independence and unity of Ukraine.

“... both to those who did centuries ago, and the Heroes of
the Heavenly Hundred and thousands of our soldiers who defended
their homeland now in a fight with Putin's Russia,” he wrote
on his Facebook page.

The following morning, residents of Kharkov arrived at the site
of the statue's felling to pay their respects to the space
formerly occupied by Lenin.

Some residents lay flowers at the base, while others attempted
the clean off the graffiti from the site. According to one US
eyewitness, all Ukrainian flags had been removed from the statue
by Monday.